John Schneider says Seahawks still have plenty of young talent: ‘Trust the process’

Seahawks general manager John Schneider and his wife, Traci, joined Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle Friday morning to talk about their upcoming charity event. Schneider also offered some insight into this year’s Seahawks squad and a few of the team’s offseason moves.

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After parting ways with several longtime veterans and seeing big names walk in free agency, many critics have branded Seattle as a team in a rebuilding mode. Schneider, though, disagrees.

“It’s a constant reset every single year, it doesn’t stop,” Schneider said. “When I say ‘reset’ people are like, ‘Well it’s a rebuild.’ We’re not rebuilding; it’s just a reset. We’ve got some pretty good players on this football team. And there’s a lot of young players that people don’t necessarily – they haven’t heard their names yet. I remember going through this when we traded Josh Wilson, and Kelly Jennings and Marcus Trufant were here. And nobody knew who Byron Maxwell, and Richard Sherman, and Walter Thurmond were…

“I’m telling you man, there’s a lot of good young football players that people don’t know about. Tedric Thompson was one of our best special teams players this last year. He didn’t get to play much at strong safety. Kam [Chancellor] was one of our best special teams players the first year he played. He didn’t get to play strong safety because Lawyer [Milloy] was here. Trust the process, man.”

Schneider does acknowledge that this reset includes a shifting mindset. In particular, the Seahawks are focused on returning to Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll’s original formula.

“Smart, tough, reliable, fast, physical football team that’s competing like its never been seen before,” Schnedier said, when asked to describe that it means to return to who they are. “And it’s this ultimate standard that you’re constantly trying to reach. There’s no finish line. Like, how do you get there? What’s out there? I was reading an article the other day about [Connecticut women’s basketball], just that standard that they put out there … they’re chasing something that’s never been seen before, done before. And we’ve done that and we’re continuing to do it.”

More about Ben’s Fund

Inspired by their son, Ben, who was diagnosed with autism at age three, the Schneiders created Ben’s Fund in 2012. The organization provides grant opportunities for for Washington state families with children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

“We saw so many families that could not afford the care and services for their children, because a lot of this stuff is out of pocket and it is extremely expensive,” Traci said. “And we saw families struggling to get their child care and services. And we know that you have to act early to make the biggest impact on these kiddos that are diagnosed. And it broke our hearts… so we knew when we got to a point when we could give back to the community that we were in, that’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to give the support directly to those families and those kids to help them immediately.”

The foundation originally supported families with children who have autism, though they’re now expanding to support young adults with autism. More information on Ben’s Fund.

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